BSP's elephant striving to regain ground in Raj

The Bahujan Samaj Party is striving to regain its lost ground and vote share above 4 per cent in Rajasthan and plans to field 200 candidates in the 25 November state assembly polls. It may be noted that the BSP was once considered as the “third front” after the Congress and the BJP in the state.

- YASH GOYAL

Meanwhile, five of the six BSP MLAs, who joined the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in 2019 and enjoyed the official status not less than of ministers of state, are camping in Delhi and meeting the chief minister at the Jodhpur House and other AICC functionaries to secure their Congress tickets from the same constituencies where they had won on the BSP ticket in 2018 assembly polls.

When contacted, one of them, Lakhan Singh Meena, told The Statesman they all were confident to contest this assembly election on the Congress ticket. Four others are Deep Chand, Joginder Singh Avana, Wazib Ali, and Sandeep Kumar.

The sixth BSP deserter and subsequent Congress minister, Rajendra Singh Gudha, who was sacked for his alleged remarks in the Assembly, joined the Shiv Sena (Shinde group) last month.